Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 551 to 575 of 841 results

551. Life's Little Gambles

Illustration

Bill Bryson

... psychologist Gerald Wilde noticed that mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths throughout most of the Western world have remained oddly static all through this century, despite advances in our technology and safety standards. Wilde developed a controversial theory risk homeostasis postulating that people tend to embrace a certain level of risk. When something is made safer, they will somehow reassert the original level of danger. If, for example, roads are improved with more and wider lanes ...

552. The Want to Believe

Illustration

Staff

T.H. Huxley, an English biologist and anthropologist and advocate of Darwin's theory of evolution, was a well-known agnostic. He was with a group of men at a weekend house party. On Sunday morning, while most of them were preparing to go to church, he approached a man known for his Christian character and said, "Suppose you stay at home and tell ...

553. The Missing Figure in the Nativity Scene

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... below 1%. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now! Semmelweis’s practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory. In 1865, a nervous breakdown (or possibly Alzheimer’s) landed Semmelweis in an asylum, where ironically he died of septicemia, at age 47. (3) Incredible, but that’s how we treat our prophets. All he asked people to do was to ...

554. Why Do We Try to Know It All?

John 1:1-18

Illustration

Kenneth W. Collins

It seems to be a relatively late hobby, peculiar to western Christianity, to contrive a sort of ‘unified field theory' of the Bible that can include all facts and explain all things. That, of course, would require us to comprehend God. However, a mind can only comprehend something less complex than itself—so if we could comprehend God, He would not be God. For this reason, the historic Church teaches ...

555. Toss Your Cap Over the Wall

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” That’s the way life is. Start to make waves and somebody will try to wrest the oars out of your hands by belittling your work. One author has called this the “Salk Theory.” Jonas Salk, that great doctor of medicine who pioneered polio research and discovered the Polio Vaccine, had a legion of critics he dealt with over the years. At one point, he made an interesting observation about the nature of criticism, which seems to hold true ...

556. Mark 6:14-29

Mark 6:14-29

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and making him a “name” (that’s the first century equivalent of “celebrity”). Enough recognition, in fact, to bring Jesus to Herod’s attention. The musings over Jesus’ identity, over the reason for the power and authority he wielded, offered three different theories: 1) first, he was a resurrected John the Baptist; 2) second, he was the long-awaited return of Elijah; or 3) third, he was one of God’s other “prophets of old.” The conjecture by some and conviction of Herod that Jesus ...

557. When Others Serve Your Head on a Platter

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

558. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Illustration

Staff

... you would have others do unto you. That's all you need to know and all you need to do." Well, the minister thought for a second and then answered. "You know, I'm glad you raised that issue. I've been thinking about astronomy and astronomers with all your theories about an expanding universe and black holes and myriad galaxies. We don't need all that scientific mumbo jumbo. Astronomy is actually quite simple and can be summed up in a few words. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are."

559. How Do You Know the Good Guys from the Bad Guys?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

... Christian world of Jesus' time. A Christian talk-show host I quote once in a while sometimes talks about how gullible some Christians are. Sometimes he's talking about the internet schemes aimed at Christians. Other times he's talking about conspiracy theories. Still other times he's just talking about how quick Christians can be to believe anything and everything that comes over Christian radio or from the pulpit. He urges his listeners to think and discern. Good advice, I think. Sometimes the children ...

560. The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... also illustrates the sad state of "truth" these days. An awful lot of "truth" is nothing but spin, and one gets the impression that if something is declared loud enough and long enough, people begin to accept it as "true." That, of course, was the"big lie" theory of the Nazis, and it does work. Politicians have been proving it ever since. Are you familiar with satirist Stephen Colbert? He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a late-night take off of talk-show blowhards, and he has added a new ...

561. Proper 16

Psalm 71:1-6, Isaiah 58:9b-14, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 13:10-17, Hebrews 12:18-29

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... ; we do not want to be bent over by half-truths, abusive images, and political accusations. Help us. God of Religions — how we have struggled to understand your hopes for your creatures. We’ve made rules and rituals, fences and doors, formulas and theories hoping to present ourselves well to you and keep away contaminating influences. But the more we try, the more rumors of war erupt; the more judgments are rendered against people who experience you differently; the more angst we feel in our own bodies ...

562. The Word Alone

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... human knowledge. It teaches, reproofs, and corrects. It trains people in righteousness, equipping them for every good work. The power and the authority of scripture are found in what it does. Luther knew this to be true. He knew and firmly believed that all theories, all theologies, all teachings are to be tested against the teachings of the Bible. If they contradict the teachings of the Bible, they are to be refused. If they are in agreement with the teachings of the Bible, they are to be followed ... come ...

563. When We Are Uncertain about The Future

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... out deep. Even when we know that our fears are overblown, many of us are afraid. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can even increase our fears. I understand this was true of the great scientist Louis Pasteur. Once Pasteur discovered the germ theory of disease he began to realize that germs are in the air and on everything you touch. And, in Pasteur’s time there was no such thing as antibiotics. Through pasteurization, the process Pasteur developed, he discovered he could remove bacteria from milk ...

564. Blessed Are Those Who Believe

John 20:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... soaring language of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your noun and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love . . . “When evil men plot, good men plan. When evil men bomb and burn, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout words of hatred, good men must commit ...

565. What the Trinity Does

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... ever lived has had limitations. Some of us regard Albert Einstein as perhaps the smartest man who ever lived. Did you know that when Einstein died, he left an unfinished manuscript? This manuscript was to be his crowning achievement, his attempt to create a “theory of everything,” an equation that would unlock the secrets of the universe and perhaps allow him to “read the mind of God.” But, if he had truly discovered those secrets at the heart of the universe, he died with them still locked within ...

566. Between a Rock and a Hard Rock Thrower

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... As the “family” that was the first century Christian church took shape, it would be hard to find two more radically different personalities than Peter and Paul. Tradition says that both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome in 64 AD. There is even one theory that Peter and Paul may have been buried together in the same grave at Rome. (See Walter Lowrie, Peter and Paul at Rome [New York: Oxford University Press, 1940]). But besides sharing death and perhaps burial in common, as well as a passion for Jesus ...

567. A One Sentence Legacy

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” Jesus was stating a solid spiritual principle in practical and recognizable terms. People fail in business. People also fail in life. And the reasons are often the same. One guy said sadly, “I started out on the theory that the world had an opening for me. I was right. Today I’m in a hole.” We know what he was talking about, don’t we? For the person who does not sit down and count the costs whether building a tower or conducting a military ...

568. When God Tests Us

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Argile Smith

... trust him? Or will we decide that we would do just as well to take action on our own behalf? Meanwhile, up on the mountain, God tested Moses too. He didn’t test Moses like a research specialist would test a laboratory mouse in order to prove a scientific theory. No. God tested Moses like a dad tested his daughter by giving her the keys to his car. All finished with the driver’s education classes and having passed the driver’s test, she had a brand new license that was burning a hole in her purse. She ...

569. Jesus’ Prayer: The Pause in the Battle

John 17:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... had mastered Latin and Greek by the time he was twelve. He devised a way to measure an angled cross-section of a cone, invented the world’s first calculating machine, investigated the dynamics of liquids, experimented with the barometer, and developed a theory of probability before dying at 39. Historians approach Pascal from different perspectives, but they all rate him a genius. Humans can use our intelligence to hold God at arm’s length. Pascal had believed in God but wandered away from his devotion ...

570. Seeing Jesus

John 9:1-12

Sermon

David O. Bales

... But look at what Jesus does while his pious students are inquiring about who sinned to produce this suffering. Jesus, instead, acts. This is a real person who’s suffering for crying out loud, and Jesus isn’t going to lounge around, chewing over theories, or spouting explanations for suffering. Basically Jesus says, “God’s going to work even here.” Then he heals the man’s eyes in a way the man can understand — spittle was believed to be medicinal. Others mill around chatting about the cause of ...

571. Looking Down on God

John 13:1-17

Sermon

David O. Bales

... before we consider them within God’s grace. We can insist that they be baptized in a particular way or celebrate communion with a particular ritual, or that the church be governed in a specific way or by a particular sex, or that we bow to a precise theory of biblical inspiration or to a detailed schedule of how the world’s going to end. Jesus grants one window through which the world can look in and spy the true church: Our loving one another. Jesus says his commandment that we love one another is a ...

572. Hitting the Boss Key

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... B 300’s? Glad you asked. Babcock B 300’s were a special breed of chickens that were supposed to lay more eggs than any other kind. But what was really interesting was the fellow who developed them. His name was Monroe C. Babcock, and he had this theory: he believed that chickens would produce better if the farmers read their Bibles more and went to church often. He believed that people who knew the love of God would be more loving and kind to others around them, even to the animals on their farms! And ...

573. In the Mood for Murder

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you can remember back in the 1970s when mood rings were a big fad (sort of like the pet rock). They were especially popular with young girls. The theory behind the mood ring was that body heat fluctuates with the emotional state of the wearer . . . and the ring was attuned to the body’s temperature. None of this was ever established scientifically, of course, but, like most fads, it provided some fun for people especially for comedians and cartoonists. ...

574. Don't Roll It Back

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that speak about our greatest desires for spiritual connections too. But these ancient languages have not been spoken for millennia. And they do not have any special words for new designations like the internet, or robots, or string theory, or sushi. English has always been “on the move.” What is most familiar to you today? Words like “Facebook,” “Twitter,” “iPad,” “Face Time,” “Fandango,” “Snap Chat,” “Apps.” These would have been gibberish a decade ago. In March of ...

575. For Troubled Hearts

John 14:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... deep breath, and ask ourselves if the things we are concerned about really deserve so much of our time and energy. It reminds me of something the old baseball pitcher Tug McGraw once said. Tug had a wonderful philosophy of pitching. He called it his “frozen snowball” theory. “If I come in to pitch with the bases loaded,” Tug explained, “and a heavy hitter [like] Willie Stargell is at bat, there’s no reason I want to throw the ball. But eventually I have to pitch. So I remind myself that in a few ...

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